1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to landscaping, and more particularly to systems and apparatuses for constructing a landscaping system such as a retaining wall.
2. Description of Related Art
One known method of constructing a retaining wall involves positioning individual decorative units such as blocks, bricks, tiles, or rocks, and using a plastic curable material such as mortar to bind the individual units together. This method advantageously produces a retaining wall having a plurality of decorative units. However, the time and labour to build the retaining wall can be costly.
Other known methods of retaining wall construction involve the use of blocks made from concrete, for example. Conventional wall construction blocks are typically stackable and may interlock with adjacent wall blocks to form a retaining wall. These wall construction blocks are typically relatively inexpensive and straightforward to assemble, although disadvantageously these conventional blocks often form an unattractive wall that looks conspicuously formed of standard wall construction blocks because the joints between the blocks may be highly noticeable, and because the front faces of the blocks typically resemble concrete.
Where wall construction blocks are used to form a retaining wall to retain soil or other material, the blocks are typically stacked with a setback such that blocks in a given row have a centre of mass that is behind the centre of mass of blocks in a row below. This setback may enhance the stability of the retaining wall by better accommodating the natural forward-urging force of material behind the retaining wall. One conventional method of achieving this setback is to use wall blocks that have alignment means on the top and bottom of the blocks for causing a block to be aligned rearward of a block below it. However, this method can undesirably produce a wall having conspicuous setback gaps between adjacent upper and lower blocks. Another known method for producing this setback is to produce a non-level base surface, inclined downward to the rear, on which to assemble the blocks. Placing blocks on this inclined surface produces a wall that is also rearwardly inclined. However, this method is also undesirable because producing a rearwardly inclined base surface for building a wall can be complicated and time consuming.